1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to a character input method and apparatus in a portable terminal having a touch screen, and more particularly, to a character input method and apparatus in a portable terminal having a touch screen that can input a character using a virtual keypad in which a plurality of characters is allocated to one key area.
2. Description of the Related Art
In general, a conventional touch screen includes a display unit and a touchpad arranged in the display unit. The touch screen is currently being applied to various electronic devices adopting a graphical user interface, such as a PDA (Personal Digital Assistant), a navigation system, POS (Point-Of-Sale) system, ATM (Automatic Teller Machine), a portable multimedia player and a mobile communication terminal.
The touch screen is an important development in the field of input devices, as a suitable space for arranging an input unit cannot be easily secured in many modern electronic devices due to size limitations.
In a conventional character input method using a touch screen, a character is input on the touch screen by displaying a QWERTY-type virtual keypad similar to a computer keyboard.
However, a touch screen installed in a portable terminal should have a small size due to the compact nature of the portable terminal. Thus, if a QWERTY virtual keypad is used for character input, a display area allocated to each key becomes small. This can cause difficulties in making a precise touch for desired key input. Further, if a touch is generated outside a central area of the key, a controller may incorrectly determine that a plurality of keys is being touched.
The problem with the QWERTY virtual keypad can be addressed by decreasing the number of keys and enlarging the key area using a virtual keypad in which a plurality of characters is allocated to each key area.
This method can prevent the error of mistakenly pressing a key area, but a user has to inconveniently repeatedly press the key area for inputting a character.